June 14 (Bloomberg) -- Burger King Worldwide Inc. plans to
ramp up expansion in South Africa after opening its first
restaurant in the country and enter other parts of the continent
to take advantage of a growing middle class.

The maker of the Whopper burger has partnered with
Johannesburg-based Grand Parade Investments Ltd. to set up
Burger King South Africa and opened its first local outlet in
Cape Town last month. That was 18 years after McDonald’s Corp.
started operating in Africa’s biggest economy and 42 years after
YUM! Brands Inc.’s fried chicken chain KFC.

Burger King plans to open about 12 branches in South Africa
next year as it seeks to tap into the country’s $1.9 billion
rand a year fast-food market, Jaye Sinclair, chief executive
officer of Burger King South Africa, said in a telephone
interview from Cape Town on June 7. It will then seek to expand
in other African countries.

“The South African consumer is looking for value,”
Sinclair, 42, said. “There are more and more households where both
partners work, so the demand for quick food climbs.” The
Whopper sells for 23.90 rand, compared with the 22.95 rand price
of McDonald’s signature Big Mac burger.

Burger King, which was taken private by New York investment
firm 3G Capital Inc. in 2010 and relisted on the stockmarket
last year, is expanding in new countries amid tougher
competition in its home U.S. market. It began selling burgers in
Russia in 2010 and formed a joint venture to open 1,000 outlets
in China last year.

Way Behind

The Miami-based company named Daniel Schwartz as its new
chief executive officer on June 7, putting him in charge of a
strategy focused on international expansion.

Burger King’s partnership with Grand Parade Investments may
allow the restaurant chain to expand through the leisure-focused
investment company’s hotels and casinos, Sinclair said, yet it
remains a long way behind its competitors. McDonald’s operates
170 restaurants in South Africa, while KFC has more than 600
stores in the country.

“In the first four weeks we sold 3,000 meals a week from
our Cape Town outlet, using a ton of Whopper burgers,” Sinclair
said.

While South Africa’s middle class has almost doubled in 8
years and is “attractive”, the company is already looking to
expand in the rest of the continent, Sinclair said. Africa is
home to the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population,
McKinsey & Co. said in a 2010 report. Household expenditure in
the continent is forecast to expand 63 percent to $1.4 trillion
by 2020, the report said.

Open Outlets

Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy will expand 4.9 percent this
year compared with global growth of 2.2 percent, the World Bank
said in June. South Africa’s GDP is forecast to grow by 2.5
percent. Burger King will initially look to open outlets in
Botswana, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

“South Africa is to be a springboard into Africa,”
Sinclair said. “There is double-digit growth in many of these
economies, so you want to be there.”